Second phase of industrial park hangs in limbo

Monitoring Desk

KABUL: Factory owners at an industrial park in Kabul said work that started on the second phase of an industrial park three years ago ground to a halt last year despite factories waiting to start operations.  The factory owners said many businesses were ready to move into the new phase of the Juma Mohammad Mohammadi Industril Bark in Bagrami district but that problems, including land grabbing in the park, have forced work on the project to stop.

Businessmen in the area said the park is now surrounded by residential houses and that parts of the area zoned for the park have been usurped in the past few years. They also said a perimeter wall has remained incomplete due to the existence of residential houses in the industrial park. Employees at the industrial park claimed that government has not been able to reclaim the usurped land.

“A large part of the park has been grabbed by local land grabbers where they have built illegal houses. Now that factory owners want to start work here they are prevented from doing so and they are threatened, and they cannot build factories here,” said Mohammad Amiri, a factory owner, who has a facility in the second phase of the park. Bagrami industry owners’ association has meanwhile also called for basic services to be provided.

“First, a road should be built for us and then the water system should be built, electricity which is an important need, should be provided for us,” said Mohammad Qasim, head of Bagrami industry owners’ association. “You can see, many factories here are ready to start operating,” he said.

Previously, factory owners from Nangarhar and Herat complained about the slow pace of construction at industrial parks in the provinces. Analyst says the merging of Afghanistan Investment Support Agency with the Ministry of Commerce and Industries has affected the pace of development at these industrial parks.